


Introduction

by BurrSquee, Tikor



Series: Castebook: Changing Moon [1]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen, Lunars, POV First Person, Roleplaying Character, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-25 06:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12525268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurrSquee/pseuds/BurrSquee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: An ancient Lunar is ambushed by his long-dead past, then resolves to take action.





	1. Return of the Kha-Khan

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings, dear reader. Welcome to the Lunar Castebooks fan project written by Tikor and BurrSquee, edited by Xaun. This Castebook, Changing Moon, has the following chapters, though they are organized as works here in AO3:
> 
> Introduction / Return of the Kha-Khan  
> Chapter 1: Through Luna’s Grace  
> Chapter 2: The Trials We Face  
> Chapter 3: Our World, Our Territory  
> Chapter 4: The Songs They Sing Of Us  
> Chapter 5: Our Oral History  
> Chapter 6: Gifts of the Changing Moon  
> Appendix 1: Signature Characters  
> Appendix 2: Other Notable Changing Moons
> 
> This is not a complete game. Castebooks, by their nature, are expansion-type content where the Lunars and those around them reflect on the miracle of their existence. We don’t own Exalted, or many of the canon characters expanded by this fan work. It is a spiritual and unofficial continuation of the Caste and Aspect books from first edition. Lunars have never had their society and personages expanded in fiction and crunch to the extent the Solars and Dragon-Blooded have - until now. We humbly hope that Lunar player characters and Storytellers of any chronicle will find this fanwork as inspiring as its forebearers were for Solars and Dragon-Blooded. 
> 
> As of this writing, the Lunar splatbook has yet to be released so the [meta series](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12548572/chapters/28578012) will have commentary and mechanics to aid incorporating these Castebooks to your third edition table. If you need a base set of Lunar Charms for a Lunar player character, there are a few conversions/reimaginings on the Exalted forums ([such as this one](http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1077697-watch-me-fumble-my-way-through-making-a-charmset-in-yet-another-lunar-homebrew-thread)). We expect 3e Lunars to surprise and delight us by deviating from the content that came before and from the expanded story threads you read here. Please keep the source of those discontinuities in mind when reading this from the future. 
> 
> We hope you enjoy reading the Lunar Castebooks fan project as much as we did writing it.

“...And the corruption that plagues you, that oppression as heavy as the sun, will be scoured away! In that glorious time the great Wind, the Silent Wind, that you can feel in this very room but cannot hear,” the caves helpfully supplied a silent gust to accentuate the point, “Will return your faith with salvation! She will scrub you in her touch, taking all sickness, all infirmity, leaving you whole and clean. Her daughter Vitaris will shine her holy light upon you. Her daughter Pellegrina will cleanse the sand from your body, prince and slave alike. Kalmanka will smite your enemies, the enemies of our faith, with her body of a million arrows. Finally Kamilla will appear and carry the corpses far away so that none of the faithful will be troubled should they rise again. Then! Then...“

The priest either had a true connection or an impressive library to have gotten Adorjan’s daughter’s names right. I hoped it was the second. I pitied any poor fool who let Adorjan blow over them. Adorjan’s love was nothing to court. While I sat there pretending to be moved by the sermon, I couldn’t see, even with my Essence sight, any sign of demonic blessing. Perhaps all demonkind had done to him was promise and prod. I thought to myself that he might live through a few more of my observations before he fell too far under a demon’s thrall. I tried to focus on the positive. I had come here to observe subversive elements of my experiment in the Winding Path, not to eliminate them. 

Here was an unassuming slum building upon which converged otherworldly Essence. Below the surface the structure hid a basement deep enough to lead to the underground-caves that ran out of the South of my city, Chiaroscuro. Above the meagre congregation sitting on crooked scrap-glass pews were multiple stories of broken-out glass revealing the rotten insides of once-great architecture, populated by squatters and their filth, all held up by bones too well made to fall over. The priest was one of them, as dirty as the rest, as desperate as their lowest number. Desperate enough to worship demons in hopes of salvation.

Then, behind the unholy man, in the dark of a tunnel, I saw a spinning circle glowing a blood red. My first thought was that a demon was present, and my heart sank. Not for my own safety, but for the pruning I would have to do that day. If demons already walked among them, then they were unacceptably endangering the rest of the citizens of Chiaroscuro.

The glowing circle approached the torches to reveal a woman, clad in a wind-battered robe of some sand-stained, poor material dragging on the floor behind her, far too big for her height and build, with a crazed smile plastered on her face. No one accompanied her. The priest turned to look when she approached - following the straying eyes of his meagre congregation. “And who are you to interrupt the word of the Silent Wind?!”

I could tell by the shaking of her frame she was laughing, but no sound of it reached my sharp ears. She pulled a knife from her robe, dashing at the demon’s preacher, slashing his chest. He cried out and fell to his knees, vainly trying to keep the blood within his body with his hands. The crowd gasped like they were watching the plot twist of a play.

While she had everyone’s attention she spoke, “Tamuz, my Dejazmach, I know you are here! I can smell you.” The crowd found their feet then. They rose up and ran for the upper levels, only to find the trapdoor to the tunnels in which they congregated unable to open, probably due to some large weight resting upon it. They pounded uselessly on it, making a racket. The creature’s plastered smile fell, and she held her ears against the noise. No one made an attempt to avenge the priest. Some faithful started asking for ‘Tamuz’ to come forth and spare them. When no one answered that they were me, she continued, bloody knife dripping on the altar of the felled priest. “Chiara has come to claim you. Come out, come out, come out!”

Dejazmach was a title my Solar mate Chiara gave me to bear in defense of her lands long, long ago. She died in the Usurpation and I had not seen her reincarnation in all this time since. I had heard stories that the Solars had returned of course; anyone keeping an ear to the ground knew their sightings had increased tenfold at least. But despite the likelihood, I had secretly hoped that Chiara was not among them. For years that had been the case, and I had grown hopeful. 

“Chiara loves what you’ve done with Chiaroscuro, my Dejazmach. The melted glass and restless ghosts warm my soul. Darkness to contrast against the brightness of the buildings, like a true artist. Brings out the tragedy of life for all to see! Aha _hahaha_!” Whoever this being claiming to be Chiara was, she was not in her right mind. Her raving drew attention from the congregation, stopping enough blows to the unmoving trap door that she lowered her hands from her ears. “The Tri-Khan and his family, the lesser Khans and their families, they will all be fine, proud sacrifices to the wind that will carry off their screams.”

Threats against their powerful leaders, even unloved by these discontents, brought a renewed panic among the people of the cult, banging louder than before on the upward door that wouldn’t budge. Leaving by way of the entrance was clearly a losing strategy. I addressed other congregants at the fringe of that desperate mass and said to them, pointing, “We have to make a run for the tunnels! She can’t keep us all from them!”

They looked at me and at her. Standing near the lectern, brandishing her knife she looked like she would cut down anyone who tried to leave. A few brave ones, a middle aged woman and her daughter, a man so thin his bones poked at his stretched skin, and another muscular youth like my current stolen skin, showed resolve in their eyes. The rest kept on cowering in fear or banging at the shut door. I waved the brave ones forward. We made the run together.

Her rictus smile never wavered as she dashed among us faster than the eye could follow, slashing. The poor skinny man lost a foot to her knife, stumbled and fell. The woman took a blow to the chest, and her daughter stopped to yell at her, blood spurting from the fatal wound. I allowed myself to be marked, taking a cut to the arm, but spinning to make sure it did not cut deep. The other youth was fast enough to escape unharmed, though it was a mortal kind of speed borne of fear and desperation, exactly the kind I was trying to mimic. Chiara let us both go, cackling. I could not guess her reasons. 

Once in the tunnel, I ran from the scene. I ran from this novel threat, from all the helpless, mislead people I suspected would never see another morning, and from the bloody red circle spinning on Chiara’s forehead. I might have triumphed if I had fought back, there are few who can stand against me that remain alive in all Creation. My panoply waited Elsewhere for my shapeshifting to retrieve them, my Essence swollen within me, ready to radiate at my command. But she could have been a trap or a distraction for her co-conspirators. Only the insane would assault an elder Lunar alone. I did not know what I was facing, how many, what they wanted, why me, or why now. All of these reasons for fleeing are true, but, to keep my promise to be honest with myself in these pages, I must admit that was only part of the reason I ran. I remembered how Chiara had convinced me to do devious things in my early life, things I never would have stooped to doing on my own, swimming to the surface after all my efforts to bury them forever. My mind dredged up the betrayal of Contentious Sword’s forces in the conquest of Icehome, to keep his soul young and incapable of turning his armies anywhere unpleasant. I recalled the alterations to the flying mechanisms in Tzalti to keep Bright Shattered Ice focused there, cooped up with maintenance, prevented from inflicting her commands of exacting order upon rest of the world. Back then, my Solar mate had the veneer of sanity. It always seemed like these actions would further her charge to keep her brethren fearful of her reach, of her protective watch, or at least to advance her own goals. The Chiara I saw that day had no such civility. I could not stay and risk her words having the same effect again. I couldn’t risk the Chiara I saw that day starting to making sense. 

What did make sense, was that I could no longer tolerate the demon cultists of Chiaroscuro. If the Demons have found Chiara’s soul… if they’ve found a way to bring the Solars back but under their infernal command, then there could be no trusting any of them. Any or all could be tainted. I will have to examine them each to be sure of their purity. And perhaps periodically, to remain sure. Then arranging a purification for those who appear as tainted as Chiara. 

By the time I had emerged from the tunnel in the dry pastures south of Chiaroscuro, I was resolved that this plan of action would need a more direct and far-reaching hand.

\- - 

In the form of a great hawk I circled the ceremony to the Kha-Khan. The faithful gathered around Chiaroscuro’s golden disk in reverence to their ancestor-god. In my avian form alight on the wind, I flapped and screamed down at them. They danced and sang the songs of the triumphs of the Delzahn long ago, when they first claimed Chairscuro and cemented their power in the South. They sang of the outrider he became when he took the far ride into the South, taking on his father’s shame for failing to provide for the Delzahn horde’s needs, making the conquest necessary. They sang that he was never seen again, but that he would return when threats against their nation became too great. They would do so all day on this holy day for the Kha-Khan if I did not interrupt them. I had other plans. 

When my shadow covered them, knowing they would not see me transform with the Daystar at my back, I took the shape of the first Kha-Khan, dropping from the sky in human form. I landed in the center of the golden disk, barefoot, in the nomad dress of the ancient Delzahn. The air shimmered around me from the heat, but I made it clear to the onlookers that I was unburnt. I had long ago hardened my many forms against the South’s blistering heat.

The masses cheered. They could not believe their eyes. I made all the motions and propriations to the sky that they had practiced for centuries. Tears streamed down their faces. Their god had returned to them, and they were there that day - a day they would never forget. Some braved the hot gold, burning themselves. I pushed them back with the wind - a trick I’d learned from Voharun’s priests. There would be time enough for them to bleed for me; there was no need for their feet to blister and burn today. I needed all their hearts and minds, all their many eyes to search, all the blood they could give, and hoped it would be enough. I led them in prayer and in cheer and in exuberance. The Kha-Khan had returned, and I am he.

I gave them a speech about the gods and their demonic enemies. That I have returned to lead my people away from the demon’s temptations and back into the light of the gods. The sky is pure but the the ground is ever muddied - the Kha-Khan is the wind to scour away what demons have slipped through the cracks of their prison. They ate every word.

Much later, I slipped out from the mansion where we had spent the night feasting to my return. To have their god appear and disappear will enhance his mystery. I will make myself known to the Tri-Khan tomorrow once he has had time to digest that his rule is at an end.

The river, though, flows on. It has no end. Time itself flows between its banks, civilizations mere branches in its currents, some afloat, some sinking never to surface again. I do this not to lead the Delzahn to a conqueror's glory over Creation, but to counter another’s ambition. The river cannot end. I will not allow it to end in green fire and endless shadow, or in the light of a sun so bright and unchecked that it burns Creation away. I once tolerated the demon cults within the Delzahn; they were such convenient scapegoats to shunt the Realm’s wrath towards when suspicions ran high. But now that they have corrupted a returned Solar there can be no quarter. I have returned to shape the horde into the hammer and anvil that will beat the brass impurities from the iron of their own blood. Thus purified they will cleanse the entire South in fire. The Realm, focused inward, will not stop me. When I have set things right, I will go on the far-ride again.

Some in the Silver Pact will call me hypocrite. They will call me ‘God-King Kha-Khan’ in mocking tones. They will laugh at my warnings, and I will surely lose face. Some will heel at the feet of their Solar mates as they did in the First Age, failing to scrutinize them until it is too late. They will think a demon has been playing tricks on me and it will all blow over soon when its binding is up. Is not the Realm our enemy? And the Fair Folk? And the dead who have marched on Thorns? The demons are already beaten, and we should ignore them, they will say. 

When they speak these taunts they will show themselves to still be pups, unwary of the Oral History. They do not remember Gold-Shattered Arrow’s purge; the night he slew four Solars, six Lunars, two elder Sidereals, and nearly three hundred Dragon-Blooded all on accusations of infernalism only he knew, based on evidence only he saw, executed with summary justice. Either he was the unparalleled investigator of infernalism we all assumed - or he was the Akuma himself and killed them all when he was found out. I never solved that mystery. They do not remember Queen k’Tula, who experimented upon her Lunar mate Nakik, warping him into the first Chimera. Instead of putting him out of his misery, she kept him chained and took pleasure in continuing to bear his children, even molding her own form into a facsimile of his Spirit Shape in a display of her twisted, controlling love. They have forgotten or never learned how often the fur of the wolf was singed by the golden woman. I have not forgotten. I will use every tool I have to prevent a rampage through my territory by any Solar tainted by our imprisoned enemies. They grew mad enough on their own without listening to those broken spirits. If some of my fellows in the Silver Pact can’t see the coming conflict, if they bask in ignorance and peace, I will not waste my time trying to convince them. I will act. I have enough respect that many will follow. It is worth what scorn comes my way.


	2. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Castebook: Changing Moon

_“What was supposed to be so special about a full moon? It was only a big circle of light. And the dark of the moon was only darkness. But halfway between the two, when the moon was between the worlds of light and dark, when even the moon lived on the edge...maybe then a witch could believe in the moon.”_  
\- Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

**Caste Book: Changing Moon** is a sourcebook about those whose trials and tattoos have marked them as the most mutable of tattooed Lunars, some few inheritors of three combined First Age Castes, as well as the tricks they play on the world, their fellow Lunars, and sometimes even themselves. The Changing Moons are the spies, scouts, orators, tacticians, and socialites of the Silver Pact, among other roles. This book will illustrate by example some of the varied faces of the Changing Moon Caste.

Known as Anathema, more specifically the Tricksters by the dominant social order of the world in the Second Age, the Realm, they are banned from more civilized circles - at least overtly. By taking the shape of another or using their powerful Charms of identity, the Changing Moons can insinuate themselves into any existing social structure and influence it from within. They also experiment with their own civilizations not bound by the Immaculate Order in the Threshold, either from the shadows as the stranger asking just the right question, as legendary figures of a society’s stories imparting hardy values down the generations, or even openly as God-Kings, though this last is looked down upon by many Lunars of the Winding Path.

Whether a survivor from the High First Age or a newly marked pup, the Changing Moons engage with the world on their own terms, often changing the conversation to better suit them and their goals. They are the social glue that holds the Silver Pact together; they bind the reclusive No Moon savants and the Full Moons fighting on the front lines into a well-functioning whole. Behind every Gathering is a Changing Moon or two who makes the event enticing enough to attend for the other Lunars in the area, keeping the pack cohesive and the conversation going. 

Despite this predilection for socializing, the Changing Moons can train to become as fierce as any Full Moon in battle, or as capable of high sorcery as the most puissant of the No Moons, though rarely as broadly capable in war or lore as members of those Castes. Lunar Exalted are twice chosen. Once by their patron Luna, and throughout the Shogunate and the Second Age by their elders performing the Caste fixing working. The elders take into account a Lunar’s natural approach to problem solving, usually by subjecting them to several trials. So while fang and claw or words of power may be in their ability, most Changing Moons will try talking their way through a problem first. In doing so, they might find that no blood or magic are required at all, and that they’ve made a friend and an ally where once was only an enemy or the unknown.

Each Changing Moon was given the gift of infinite mutability by Luna herself. Each then traded a fraction of that possibility for the Moonsilver Tattoos. Their reasons vary, and their paths to the Caste have as many stories as their number, no two alike. Each may use these gifts to sway others toward the love of Gaia, bind the Fair Folk in clever Oaths, conceal the secrets of the Lunar’s chosen society, build a civilization of mortals strong enough to survive, or even bolster the argument for the Solars’ ancient right to rule. What is common is that each has a choice, and each makes one.

**How to Use This Book**

**Caste Book: Changing Moon** is here to offer ideas and suggestions for the many trials and tribulations of the most diverse group of Lunars. With that comes new or retrofitted Charms and Evocations, Artifacts, and Manses for people who wish to include a Changing Moon in their game. This also illustrates several beliefs and opinions of these Children of the Shifting Moon, showing how they interact with each other and within the world of Exalted.

 **Chapter 1: Through Luna’s Grace** introduces six Changing Moons, all very different from one another, some old friends and some new faces. This chapter contains the history of their mortal life up to their beginning of their Second Breath at Luna’s touch. These tales they weave tell of the varied beginnings that make up this Exalted Caste.

 **Chapter 2: The Trials We Face** tells how these Exalted found their Castes through the trials they faced. It gives examples of the diversity of trials as well as the differences of the mentors that wield them. As the previous chapter showed their history, this chapter tells of their future within Lunar society.

 **Chapter 3: Our World, Our Territory** provides the opinions the Changing Moon Exalted have on a number of topics; from mortals and their societies to Exalted and all manner of supernatural forces that grace Creation. This chapter also shows much of the way Lunar society is interwoven together, with many voices impacting the opinions of one.

 **Chapter 4: The Songs They Sing of Us** gives the varied opinions of mortals, gods, and other powerful others on the narrators of this book. There are allies, mentors, and friends who respect our narrators, and others who are downright hostile towards them. Some are fearful of these Exalts, many of whom have been around for hundreds of years if not longer. Love them or hate them, none doubt the power and potential for upheaval these Changing Moons represent.

 **Chapter 5: Our Oral History** is an insight into one character and a piece of that character's particular history, as is told in the Lunar oral history. For Changing Moons, the chapter focuses on Lilith and her first entry to the Heaven-and-Earth Invitational in Yu-Shan.

 **Chapter 6: Gifts of the Changing Moon** is a series of new or retrofitted Artifacts, Evocations, and Charms. Many of these are made for or by signature characters, and will help storytellers and players give depth to these characters. This chapter features Lunar Hero Style, the signature fighting style for Lunars.

 **Appendix 1:** Signature Characters has each of the six narrating Exalts as mechanically complete characters ready to join any storyteller’s game.

 **Appendix 2:** Notable Changing Moons contains short story-only write-ups of Changing Moon Castes as additional inspiration for character creation or to round out the cast of Changing Moons in your own game.

 

**Source Material**

The Changing Moons, unlike the other defined Castes of Lunars, are the most adaptive and diverse group of Lunars. This means that they can be nearly anything that a player wants them to be. From honored diplomat, to suave seducer, to stealthy assassin, all are possibilities for those who belong in the Changing Moon Caste. Therefore, the representations of Lunars are as vast as they are. Here are a few examples compiled to help inspire future characters.

**Video:**

The Faunus of _RWBY_ by Rooster Teeth have animalistic features reflective of their personalities - a great inspiration for tells. They also come with a rich history of discrimination and societal ostracism. All of this can be used to influence how a Changing Moon Lunar may choose to inhabit a world of hatred towards Lunars and how they choose to face that world.

 _Spice and Wolf_ is a manga and light novels series (Isuna Hasekura) and an anime (Takeo Takahashi) that depicts what a Lunar might do if she grew attached to a mortal merchant. His life, needless to say, changes as much as she does. 

Mystique created by Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont, of the X-men comics, movies, and animated series by Marvel Comics, shows the kinds of mischief and tangles, both social and combative, that a Changing Moon focusing on human shapes can lead herself into. It also is an examples of the unparalleled range that a Changing Moon Lunar can inhabit.

**Gaming:**

Vincent Valentine, of Final Fantasy VII, has the kind of dangerous charm a Changing Moon can master. His limit breaks show a drastic change from a ranged character to a series of shapeshifted characters with new abilities. 

Link in _Twilight Princess_ finds himself in the shape of a sacred wolf when he enters twilight areas. In this wolf form, Link is able to use different techniques to help him fight enemies or find hidden things and characters that help him progress throughout the game. Use this as an example of the Creatures of the Moon that use darkness to find and discover new things.

**Fiction:**

Kelsier from Brandon Sanderson’s _Mistborn_ trilogy, though not literally changing forms, nevertheless demonstrates many of the traits of the Changing Moon Caste. Who he is and what he represents is different for all of the characters he interacts with; thief, rebel, con man, explorer, teacher, warrior, and ultimately leader as the circumstances dictate. His flexibility, gifts, and powers bind together a group of mixed heroes to start a rebellion that seems impossible at the start. He is an example of a Changing Moon using his powers in a way that magnifies him into something far greater than his raw ability should dictate, to meet whatever obstacles present themselves - even at the cost of his own life.

The Disreputable Dog is found in Garth Nix’s _Old Kingdom_ series, a magical series about the Abhorson which uses necromantic powers to reverse the powers of other necromancers. The Disreputable Dog has the power to change her shape in anyway that suits her, from growing suckers to hold onto slick surfaces to wings to allow her to fly, a trait inherent to any Lunar. What makes her a Changing Moon is that, for the power she wields, she does not move with either brute force or great thought. She is a companion and uses her social influence to guide her compatriots into decisions she prefers. A silver-tongued Lunar if there ever was one.

Juliet Marillier, in her _Sevenwaters_ series, writes about a character by the name of Bran, who has half of his body covered with tattoos indicative of a Raven. He has a sound military mind and commands a group of ragtag men. He uses many aspects of stealth and deception to gain the information he needs and then strikes his opponents with a dramatic flare. He is a great example of a more militarily inclined Changing Moon, allowing anyone to choose to be a fighter without being solely a Full Moon. 

**Folklore:**

_The Crane Wife_ is a Japanese folktale of a man who married a woman who is actually a crane. She makes her husband items to sell, usually fabric, under a single condition of not looking in the room as she weaves the cloth. Eventually the man looks into the room to see the woman not as human but as the crane. After that, she flies away leaving the man alone.

Another example of folklore shapechangers are the selkies of the British Isles. A seal becomes a beautiful woman after shedding her skin. She spends time with the man who lured her with song from the ocean and marries him, usually giving him children. However, the sea always calls and eventually the woman must return to her seal shape and leave to go back to the ocean. 

An alternative tale of the selkie is one that resembles one of the mermaid. It is with her voice that she convinces the man to love her. In these tales she does one of two things. She either sheds her skin like the selkie to live with him for awhile before returning to the sea or she consumes the heart of the man who was foolish to fall in love with a siren of the sea.

Although a tale like this could be indicative of any Lunar Exalted, these are always tales of shapeshifting and mostly well-meaning deception. With the addition of song singing or crafting, a Changing Moon spin is placed on these folk tales. Use these pre-modern folktales to help create Lunar history or situations for your characters.

**Mythology:**

Trickster gods are present in nearly every mythology, and both their positive and negative traits can serve as inspiration for members of the Changing Moon Caste. Shapechanging is often among their many powers, but it isn’t a strict requirement. An obvious example of a trickster god made familiar to many through both traditional stories and contemporary cinema is Loki, of the Norse pantheon. Other examples include the West African god Anansi, Hermes of the Greek pantheon, and deities like Coyote and Raven from some Native American traditions.

Tricksters are neither entirely good nor entirely evil, and often utilize a range of threats and gifts to accomplish their objectives. More than any other Caste, Changing Moons can learn from the adaptability and often-unorthodox approaches to problem solving demonstrated by these trickster gods. At the same time, their excesses are a cautionary tale, illustrating the danger of losing one’s self in the pursuit of a goal. _Beware hunting monsters lest you become one yourself_ goes double when you are already a bit monstrous.


End file.
